The Rise of the SIP Trunks

Perhaps, I was a bit hasty in describing the growth of SIP Trunking last week. Yes, a SIP Trunk is expected to be the second most installed type of trunking service (behind T1s) and a majority of medium to enterprise businesses has plans to install SIP in 2010. Additionally, the global market for VoIP is now described as having exceeded $20 billion for the first six months of 2009 (Infonetics). Finally, the number one driver for the transition to VoIP/SIP Trunking is the dramatic cost savings which during these economic conditions can make a CIO a hero within the company. All is true but are there other reasons?

SIP Trunking by its nature provides several highly desired capabilities and they are usually available at no cost (at least from Broadvox). These include dynamic load balancing, business continuity/disaster recovery and a foundation for Unified Communications (UC).

Dynamic load balancing can be provided based upon capacity, available resources, time and geography. I think too few of our customers actually look at their call centers and support organizations with the expectation of engineering the SIP Trunk to reflect the organizational requirements. However, a SIP Trunk can divert traffic between multiple locations/PBXs upon arrival, rotating or balancing the work load between locations. It can also send traffic to multiple locations in an unbalanced way if the resources or number of people varies between the locations. Finally, traffic can be moved to different locations in conjunction the starting and ending of the business day or more specifically, where the receiving and calling organization is on the planet. Utilizing dynamic load balancing results in better call distribution, service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Business Continuity is often associated with disaster recovery because it is an obvious capability meeting an obvious need. However, Business continuity can also be engaged to address business expansion. When a business decides to upgrade equipment, open a new facility or even perform scheduled maintenance, business continuity can be used to minimize service interruptions and downtime. SIP Trunking can be used to maintain priority and routine business processes during these kinds of projects. Business continuity can be provided on a continuous basis (disaster backup) or as needed basis (transition or project activity).

Unified Communications is definitely a buzz word. However, the roles that SIP as a protocol can play in support of UC are not. The protocol was always expected to do more than support improved VoIP calling (described it as "Business Ready VoIP"). Consequently, SIP has been designed to manage instant messaging, video and collaborative conferencing calling (Genius Room) and other UC related applications.

Never to forget the cost savings; remember Broadvox sells a basic line for as low as $12.75 which is usually at least 50% less than a legacy service provider. And being able to minimize or eliminate underutilized PRIs can product significant savings as well.